by L. M. Kerr
Specifically, when Chief Instructor Borbo — Micheal finally learned the hefty Toren’s name — let out a veritable avalanche of pressure, a pulsing energy Aura that froze everyone in their tracks. Even Micheal was forced to stand still, his eyes widening ever so slightly when he felt it.
That Aura was a strong one indeed. It held enough pressure to give even First Rate Warriors a reason to slow and force Second Rate Warriors to freeze up entirely, let alone Micheal whose body was that of a Third Rate Warrior. Not only did it hold the strength of a Sky Tier Ki Cultivator, it was also imbued with the natural power of the Toren Race.
“As long as I, Borbo, am Chief Instructor of the Mullan Sect, none of you are allowed to attack one another without my approval.” The Chief Instructor’s voice was nominally calm, but full of explosive undercurrents as his eyes visibly smoldered. If anyone so much as dared to talk back, it felt like he might even smite that poor fool down, then and there.
No one dared to speak up or reply, all of the Torens staring at Borbo mutely. The strongest among the young disciples were only Second Rate at best. None were able to stand up to the Chief Instructor.
The tension of the situation vanished, just like that, as the Instructors reasserted control.
And, as Micheal expected, they accepted his challenge.
Was it realistic of them to allow something like that?
Not really.
This was supposed to be a Ranking Tournament for all of their new disciples, not just Micheal. But, in the end, Micheal was still the ‘Main Character’ of this dreamworld. Everything worked out, regardless of whether or not it logically made sense. The whole point of this place was to challenge Micheal and allow Yvvtal to see the extent of his talents and Physique, to gauge whether or not he would be a good target.
What Micheal asked for still fell within the guidelines of the King’s Challenge. He might be pushing the limits, and definitely toeing the line, but it was still within acceptable bounds.
And thus, here he was now. Standing on a stage that had just been expanded by several dozen meters in all directions, large enough now to accommodate 200+ other warriors.
“Prepare yourself, warriors! The first battle of the Ranking Tournament shall begin on my mark!” Chief Instructor Borbo’s voice boomed out loud as he called out from the sidelines. He and the other instructors had moved off to the four corners of the hastily expanded stage, preparing themselves to stop any fatal injuries, accurately reflecting what would happen in reality.
Micheal took a deep breath and rolled his wrists. One small wooden sword lay loosely in his right hand while his left hand remained free. The blade weighed a good amount, around 50 pounds, made of some type of ultra-durable wood that Micheal didn’t recognize. In his hands, the heavy blade felt light and flexible, his enhanced muscles wielding them with ease.
He adopted a posture that held his sword out to the side and his hand palm open. His shoulders relaxed and he leaned forward ever so slightly, hooking his knees down a few inches. He began to regulate his breathing as his eyes grew slightly unfocused, relying on his powerful Soul and all of his senses combined to sense the world around him.
“Ready!” Borbo’s voice echoed out as he continued,
“3…”
The various Toren warriors tensed up as they glared at Micheal, mindless juvenile anger and irritation painted on their faces.
“2…”
Muscles bulged in the veritable army of powerful warriors as all of the ones set close to Micheal readied themselves to charge into an immediate offensive.
“1…”
The tension between Micheal and the Torens reached a peak, a long pregnant pause forming as everyone froze, prepared to leap into motion.
“FIGHT!”
The Torens attacked.
The closest fighters to Micheal were all ones close to his age or younger. The Instructors had set the field up so that the first warriors to reach him would be in either the ‘Child’ or ‘Half-Grown’ stages, a small element of progressive fairness.
However, despite their relative youth, one and all still possessed the bodies of an eventual Deity-Class race.
Thus, Micheal opted to hold back nothing as a trio of male Torens that looked to be around 14 to 16 years old reached him.
“Die!” The first Toren shouted a line Micheal had heard all too many times as the fighter lunged forward with a long wooden spear. The attack was filled with explosive power, a very accurate and trained strike for someone so young.
The second Toren took advantage of that moment to lash out with a heavy broadsword from behind, aimed at Micheal’s back. This attack cut forward quickly and skillfully, with few wasted movements.
The third Toren wielded two large wooden axes. While the other two Torens were attacking from the front and back, he jumped up into the air and lashed down with the hatchets, aimed directly at Micheal’s head.
All three had coated their attacks with Basic Tier Sword Energy.
It was a vicious pincer attack right from the start, aimed at leaving Micheal with no time to plan. For warriors that were so young, they showed ample talent and thoughtful planning.
‘They really aren’t half bad.’ Micheal thought as he took a small step forward and leaned his body ever so slightly to the side. In the same movement, he raised his left hand and reached out towards the ferociously incoming spear.
The next moment, the impossible seemed to happen.
Micheal’s hand latched down onto the head of the spear with a vice-like grip. The head of the weapon was mere inches from piercing through his body when he grabbed ahold of it.
It was common knowledge that Sword Energy was ferociously sharp.
Torens had bodies that were practically divine, even down here on the Second, meaning they could take a hit from Basic Tier Sword Energy head-on and survive handily.
This was energy that could boost the sharpness of a sword such that it could cut into and harm Morenkai. Blocking it with one’s body meant one had either insane courage or insane defensive prowess.
In the case of the Toren Race, it was the latter. In Micheal’s case, however…
It was neither.
A gleam of red light flashed around Micheal’s fingers as he grasped firmly onto the wooden spearhead…
And then shattered it.
He obliterated the Basic Tier Sword Energy and the magical wood in a single motion, using his abnormally fine control of his Advanced Tier Sword Energy to empower his hand itself. Splinters of wood shot out into the air from the destroyed spear, coating the ground beneath Micheal in small wooden shavings as they fluttered down.
Micheal didn’t stop there, however. As soon as he destroyed the spear, he quickly stepped forward, ignoring the shocked expression of the spear-wielder. His unexpected movement brought him directly within range of the first Toren.
This quick advance also brought him just out of range of the broadsword-wielding Toren’s attack.
He then jutted his left elbow forward, his entire body aimed precisely as he targeted a specific point on the teenager’s chest. A loud ‘thud’ echoed out as the blow slammed directly into the Toren.
And half a second later, the Toren collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
The Toren Tribe was famed for their extremely powerful bodies. However, that didn’t mean that they had no weaknesses and were invincible.
Just like humans, Torens had their own unique set of pressure points. These points on a Toren, however, were part of the magical setup of their Physique.
On the face of it, these pressure points weren’t actually weaknesses at all. In fact, they functioned as a solid wall. Each pressure point had the power to magically resonate with the Ki in a Toren’s body, reinforcing any part of their skin that was severely stressed. This fast-acting reinforcement was a large part of why their natural defenses were so famed.
Micheal knew all of this extremely well. In fact, he knew a great deal about every single one of the 12 T
ribes of Deities. From minor details about their Physiques to major knowledge about certain Titles and techniques, Micheal had a vast store of knowledge when it came to any and all enemies the human race faced.
As a warrior that was constantly trying to catch up to the geniuses that had raced ahead in the First Wave, especially with their multi-year advantage, he had devoted much of his life in the 7 Layers to not only growing more powerful, but also to learning anything and everything he could on how to take advantage of his foes.
And from that store of knowledge, Micheal knew a way to use a Toren’s Physique against them.
The moment his elbow made contact with the Toren teenager’s chest, Micheal’s entire arm vibrated for a split second. In that moment, he ran a tiny line of Ki Energy through his arm and, at the very end, exploded forth with a very small amount of Advanced Tier Sword Energy in a wave-like pattern.
Ki was not an explosive type of energy. It was almost entirely limited to passively enhancing the power of a being's body, aka one's 'Stats,' as well as serving as 'fuel' for various Abilities or techniques. After one broke past the Mortal Tier and fully integrated Ki into every part of their body, the truth of this became even clearer.
Even if you concentrated all of the Ki you controlled into your fist, without an Ability or some special Martial Art or technique helping you, you would just waste most of the energy and injure your hand. Your blow might become minimally stronger from the boost, but it certainly would not become an exponentially stronger punch like some might expect. Ki, by itself, existed primarily for passive, continuous enhancements.
However, when Ki was forced to interact with volatile energies like Sword Energy...
The cumulative result was an extremely fine and precise blow. Despite his use of Sword Energy, the strike was not at all sharp. Micheal used the powerful energy to shred the small drop of Ki he sent through his arm, causing it to fracture and explode. The combination of extremely sharp Sword Energy and steady Earth Tier Ki knocked against one of the six ‘Core’ pressure points a Toren had.
This concussive ‘shock’ overloaded the Core pressure point and sent a wave of electrical signals surging in a Toren’s body. For the 14 or 15-year-old Toren that had just taken the brunt of that attack, it was like an unstoppable meteor blasting into his brain. He simply wasn’t trained to deal with something like that and was instantly knocked unconscious.
This type of tactic was a lot like hitting a human on the chin, just right, in boxing. If you aimed it correctly, with the proper amount of force, your enemy's body would suffer from an impact that shocked their mind, causing them to collapse.
It was decently effective against weaker Torens. Against stronger Torens at the Lord or King Tier of Ki Cultivation, such a tactic was an exercise in futility. Their bodies were far too powerful, even considering these ‘vulnerable’ spots. As for humanity, given that humans didn't even have a Physique to empower their bodies in the first place, there was little need for Torens to focus on anything other than basic physiology.
Mortal, Earth, and Sky Tier Torens were those among their race who had yet to fully experience the significant transition that happened when one reached the Lord Tier of Ki Cultivation. This weakness, in fact, was one of the main reasons they weren’t considered a ‘true’ member of the Tribes of Deities until later on.
And this weakness was something Micheal intended to take full advantage of.
In the same movement Micheal used to attack and take the first Toren down, he also swung his right hand upward, pulling the wooden sword he was using up towards the two wooden axes that were hurtling towards his head.
Instead of blocking them directly, while Micheal was simultaneously elbowing the first Toren, he used his blade to tap on each axe in a rapid-fire motion. Each time he hit one of the weapons, he stabbed into the hatchet with a sliver of Advanced Tier Sword Energy.
On here, instead of exploding a tidbit of Ki, Micheal simply sheared into the axes and destabilized their movements. As a result, the axe-wielding Toren stumbled as both of his blows swung wide.
For a single, split second, the axe-wielding Toren froze up at the unexpected result.
A tiny moment later, he collapsed on the ground face-forward after taking a rapid punch to the chest from Micheal, knocked unconscious just like the first Toren.
The third and final broadsword-wielding Toren had overextended himself on his missed swing. Micheal’s strikes against the first two Torens had finished so quickly that the last attacker had not yet had time to fully recover.
By the time the third Toren did manage to pull back his blade, the last thing he saw was a white hand sailing through the air to collide with his chest, and then a flash of white light and a wave of darkness as he fell to the floor, overwhelmed.
All of this took place in the span of less than two seconds. Three furious attacks, three calm deflections, and three young, fallen Toren warriors, all in a fraction of the time it took to take a single breath.
There was a startled pause from the rest of the young Toren warriors as they saw Micheal basically one-shot the first attackers with incredible ease. This bought Micheal a couple of seconds of respite, enough time to gauge the reactions of those around him.
The younger Torens now seemed much more uncertain, while the older ones seemed more cautious. There were several that looked more excited and exuded hints of bravado, while some seemed to fade almost to the background as they changed their attack plans.
A veritable army of super-strong attackers stood still for a brief moment, acknowledging Micheal’s strength.
These warriors were by no means weak. They were powerful, stronger than most humans. Their techniques were well trained and even the youngest had a solid Martial Arts foundation.
But as Micheal looked out among them, his blood began to boil. Memories tugged at his consciousness as a feeling of raw excitement flooded his body, one that was no longer heavily constrained by minuscule physical stats. A type of excitement that he hadn’t felt ever since he came back to the past, emotions that filled his heart to the brim.
It wasn’t just the lure of battle and the draw of the fight.
It was back to challenging competent warriors, heavily trained fighters that outstripped him in strength. Facing down impossible challenges while surrounded by foes, battling against odds where he could rely on only two things.
His determination and his own skill.
The Torens resumed their charge, blocking out his vision as a swarm of mighty enemies blitzed him.
Micheal’s face lit up as his eyes glowed with energy, gazing upon the world around him. The muscles in his arms and legs bulged as he drew out every iota of strength his body had, pulling forth his full potential.
He could see it. Feel it. Sense it.
The flow of battle, dozens of bodies moving in complex patterns, shifting all around him in an ever-changing mire of war. The echoes of combat, the harsh screech of shattered stone, the rippling sensation of exploding energy. The feelings soared through his very Soul itself, a familiar call that had almost become a part of him.
A call of elegant control, of masterful design, of precise destruction…
An army of future Gods charged forth, bloodlust causing the air itself to tremble as the ground beneath them shattered.
And before that army stood a single man.
Alone.
Unbroken.
Defiant.
The world itself seemed to stand still as the Toren warriors crossed the arena, just instants from smashing into Micheal. Their charge cracked the stone floor, sending up shards of shattered stone and coating the air in a grey haze.
Micheal had returned to his original stance. His right hand held his sword off to the side, while his left hand faced outward, palm open. His body relaxed slightly, the tension within it fading as he leaned forward.
In the final moment before the first half-dozen Torens reached him…
Micheal began to smile.
And when they finally did reach him...
He began to dance.
.
Chapter 16
“What a monster…” Instructor Borbo’s voice held a hint of shock and sounded so genuine, Micheal might have thought he was a real person, as the Toren looked upon the scene before him.
It was a veritable slaughter.
In the first second of the battle…
Micheal dodged a sword slash thrust towards his head by millimeters while simultaneously leaning just out of range of a smashing kick. In the same movement, he reached out and grabbed the back of the second Toren’s knee all while raising his blade in his other hand.
He twisted the second attacker’s leg in a throwing motion, using the Toren’s momentum against him as he flipped the man forward. In the meanwhile, his wooden sword snaked out and stabbed the first Toren attacker right in the chest, avoiding the man’s sword.
The first Toren immediately collapsed, his sword flying wide, while the second Toren slammed into two other Torens that had been just about to attack Micheal. Before the second Toren could get up, however, a stabbing pain ran through his chest and his eyes rolled up, falling unconscious as Micheal blasted through one of his pressure points.
The two Torens that Micheal had downed with the throw suffered similar fates as they tried to get up, both instantly knocked back down without a chance to resist.
In a single second, already four more enemies had been taken down with incredible ease. To the onrushing Torens, it simply made no sense. Even to the watching Instructor, everything Micheal did defied logic.
He knew, better than anyone else, that Micheal’s body was not comparable in terms of strength to these attacking Torens. Even more so, the defensive prowess of his body was even worse. Torens had skin so tough they could tank hits from Advanced Tier Sword Energy and keep going, while a simple touch of that energy would slice through Micheal like butter.
Lower-level Torens had a weak spot, it was true. But that was only in the context of how incredibly tough they were.
If one compared a human wearing a full suit of nearly impenetrable armor with a human that was naked, the human with the set of nearly impenetrable armor would be vastly more powerful.